Brussels, 20/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - At a bilateral meeting in Brussels on Monday 18 April, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and Mexico's Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo discussed the last steps in the preparation of the negotiations to modernise the EU-Mexico free trade agreement, which has been in force since 2008.
Malmström and Guajardo agreed on the importance of including new chapters in the modernised agreement. This would include one on the needs of SMEs and one on the fight against corruption. The two parties also underlined the need for increased transparency in the negotiations, involving civil society.
On the European side, the Commission - which proposed a negotiating mandate in December 2015 - is awaiting the definitive adoption of this mandate by the Council. The Council could intervene at the next trade ministers meeting on 13 May.
During their last bilateral summit in June 2015, the EU and Mexico agreed to move forward to negotiations to modernise the global agreement. This agreement was concluded in 2007 and has governed EU-Mexico trade and political cooperation since 2000 (see EUROPE 11334).
The agreement includes trade arrangements for the trade of goods and services, and chapters on public procurement, competition, intellectual property and investment.
The two parties want to modernise the agreement by extending it to other areas such as energy, trade facilitation and sustainable development (see EUROPE 11312).
On Monday, Malmström informed Guajardo about the EU's latest work on the new the investment court system (ICS), which is aimed at replacing the dispute settlement mechanism between investors and states (ISDS) in trade agreements. She also informed him about the free trade agreements recently concluded with Canada (CETA) and Vietnam, which both include the new ICS.
Guajardo informed Malmström about the trade negotiations being conducted by Mexico and about the procedures for the adoption of the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) in the Mexican Congress. He also issued an official invitation to Malmström to visit Mexico for the upcoming official launch of negotiations for modernisation of the EU-Mexico free trade agreement.
On the sidelines of their meeting, Malmström and Guajardo took part in the high level symposium on steel organised by the OECD in Brussels on Monday (see EUROPE 11535). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)